This morning: there the tender orphan hands
Felt at my heart, and seem'd to charm from thence
The wrath I nursed against the world."

When Cyril pleads with her to give the child back to its mother, she
kisses it and feels that "her heart is barren." When she passes near the
wounded Prince, and is shown by his father--his beard wet with his son's
blood--her hair and picture on her lover's heart,

Her iron will was broken in her mind,
Her noble heart was broken in her breast.

From the Princess's cry then, "Grant me your son to nurse," it is but a
natural result that she should bring the Prince's wounded men with him
into the College, now a hospital. Through ministering to her lover, she
comes to love him; and theories yield to "the lord of all."

--Copeland-Rideout: _Introduction to Tennyson's Princess_.

+Theme LXXI.+--_Write the plot of one of the following_:--

1. _Lochinvar_, Scott.
2. _Rip Van Winkle_, Irving.
3. One story from _A Tale of Two Cities_, Dickens.
4. _Silas Marner_, George Eliot.
5. The last magazine story you have read.
6. Some story assigned by the teacher.

+Theme LXXII.+--_Write three brief plots. Have the class choose the one
that will make the most interesting story._

+Theme LXXIII.+--_Write a story, using the plot selected by the class in
the preceding theme._

(Are the events related in your story probable or improbable?)

+143. The Introduction.+--Our pleasure in a story depends upon our clear
understanding of the various situations, and this understanding may often
be best given by an introduction that states something of the time, place,
characters, and circumstances as shown in Section 6. The purpose of the
introduction is to make the story more effective, and what it shall
contain is determined by the needs of the story itself. The last half of a
well-written story will not be interesting to one who has not read the
first half, because the first half will contain much that is essential to
the complete understanding of the main point of the story. A story begun
with conversation at once arouses interest, but care must be taken to see
that the reader gets sufficient descriptive and explanatory matter to
enable him to understand the story as the plot develops, or the interest
will begin to lag.

+Theme LXXIV.+--_Write a narrative._

Suggested subjects:--
1. The Christmas surprise.
2. How the mortgage was paid.
3. The race between the stea